BRISTOL, Tenn. — Bernie Ecclestone once hurled the ultimate insult at Danica Patrick, saying that women shouldn’t be racing with men and “should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances."

The controversial F1 chief must have had a change of heart, saying this week that he would like to lure Patrick overseas to race in Formula One.

"All the things that people worry about — whether a woman can cope with the G-forces and all that — she has proven that she can,” Ecclestone said on the F1 website.

Patrick read Ecclestone’s comments and acknowledged Friday that she has a better relationship these days with the president and CEO of Formula One.

“I did see something about Bernie’s comments and they sounded complimentary,” Patrick said Friday. “It looked like he was kind of acknowledging my ability to drive a car. So that was kind.”

Patrick, who is running her first full Sprint Cup season, said, however, that she has no intention of giving Formula One a try.

“I’ve always said that unless that it would be something I would want to do for real, as in race a Formula One car, I don’t see any point in testing it,” the former IndyCar star said. “It is a lot or work to get fitted in the car comfortable enough to go drive it. Then as a driver, for me at least, I run the risk of what if it doesn’t go well, and then people judge me for that.

“So, unless it was something that I was really serious (about), I wouldn’t do it.”

Patrick seems to have gotten over Ecclestone’s harsh comments, which came in 2005 after she finished fourth in the Indy 500.

“I will say that Bernie over the years has actually sent a lot of messages,” Patrick said. “Any kind of big high point that happens in my career, whether it be at Indy, or Daytona now, or winning in Japan, things like that, he has sent messages.

“He even sent me like a big picture one time that was signed by him. He’s actually been really nice. I don’t necessarily think that his comments a long while back are representative of his opinion of me.”